January 2025 – My WordPress Site

comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -- ESA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy

The Refractory-to-ice ratio in Comet 67P: Implications on the Composition of the Comet-forming Region of the Protoplanetary Disk

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025January 31, 2025

Comets, asteroids, and other small bodies are thought to be remnants of the original planetesimal population of the Solar System. As such, their physical, chemical, and isotopic properties hold crucial details on how and where they formed and how they evolved. Yet, placing precise constraints on the formation region of these bodies has been challenging.

International Space Station -- CASIS

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Commercial & Private Sector, Gravitational Biology, Life Support Systems, Microbiology & Virology, Microgravity, Plant Biology, Space Life Science, Space Stations

2024 ISS National Lab Annual Report Highlights Momentum in Space-Based R&D

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025

Regions surveyed to identify sources likely to present spectra with detectable ice features of H2O, CO, CO2, 13CO2, and other species in the 3 − 5 µm wavelength range where SPHEREx is sensitive. Upper panel: The regions are projected onto a background greyscale image representing the Rowles & Froebrich (2009) extinction map stretched from AV = 0 (white) to 2 mag (black). Solid red lines enclose the fields from which candidate SPHEREx targets have been drawn. Dotted blue lines indicate the boundaries of nearby molecular clouds as defined by Zucker et al. (2019). Red circles indicate the locations and sizes of ‘dark nebulae’ identified on the Palomar plates by Lynds (1962). Lower panel: same symbols as the upper panel, but the background greyscale image is the integrated 12CO(1-0) line intensity survey executed with the CfA 1.2 m telescope and its southern hemisphere counterpart (e.g., Dame et al. 2001; Heyer & Dame 2015). The inverted greyscale stretch ranges from −1 to 25 K km s−1, to indicate the extensive CO survey footprint. The white background indicates regions unobserved by the CfA CO survey except for the Magellanic Clouds (the SMC and LMC maps are described respectively in Rubio et al. (1991) and Cohen et al. (1988)). -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Stellar Cartography

The SPHEREx Target List of Ice Sources (SPLICES)

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025January 31, 2025

hydroxylamine -- Wikipedia

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Hydroxylamine in Astrophysical Ices: IR Spectra and Cosmic Ray-Induced Radiolytic Chemistry

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025September 18, 2025

A grand summary highlighting all the physical processes that sculpt the small planet population in the radius-period space. Plotted in contour is the Gaussian Kernel density estimation of Kepler candidates from Data Release 25 (Thompson et al. 2018). We do not correct for detection biases as these contours are for illustration purpose. Rocky planets are expected to be found in a region bounded by the evaporation/primordial gap (orange dashed line / light grey region), tides (red dashed line), and magnetic drag (blue dashed line). All the boundaries drawn in this figure assume system age of 5 Gyr, M⋆ = M⊙, and B⋆,i =100 G. Varying these stellar parameters can widen or shrink the allowable region of surviving rocky planets. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Stellar Cartography

Carving the Edges of the Rocky Planet Population

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025

Cartoon depiction of the sulfur-cycle in different planetary regimes. In the Earthlike case (A), atmospheric SO2 is scrubbed from the atmosphere by wet deposition (19). In the Venus-like case with high-UV irradiation (B), for example irradiation by the Sun, SO2 can be abundant in the deep atmosphere, however in the upper atmosphere SO2 is efficiently catalysed into H2SO4 by UV photons and subsequent reaction with H2O (80). In the Venus-like case with low-UV irradiation (C), such as irradiation by a low-UV M-dwarf, SO2 can survive in the upper atmosphere (20), potentially enabling SO2 to be identified in spectroscopic observation and thereby revealing the lack of a surface water ocean. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Stellar Cartography

Tracing the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone with Sulfur Chemistry

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025January 31, 2025

Distribution of tracer particles by final density and formation density of gas-phase CH3OH with fCH3OH = 0.02, for a threshold abundance of 10−10. Dashed white lines show the 100 and 500-tracer contours from Figure 6 -- astro-ph.SR

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

NEATH IV: An Early Onset of Complex Organic Chemistry in Molecular Clouds

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025

A plot in galactic coordinates of all the coordinates currently in the database observed from 29 March 2023 to 14 July 2024. The orange points represent data from frequencies below 4 GHz and the blue points are from data collected above 4 GHz. -- astro-ph.IM

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures

COSMIC’s Large-Scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025

Astronaut Suni Williams conducts an EVA on 30 January 2025.-- NASA TV

Away Teams & Field Reports, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Microgravity, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Radiation, Space Life Science, Space Stations

Astronauts Swab The Space Station’s Exterior For Microbes (Update)

by Keith CowingJanuary 30, 2025January 30, 2025

A mosaic image of asteroid Bennu, composed of 12 PolyCam images collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 24 kilometers. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Missions & Hardware

Life’s Building Blocks Discovered In Samples From Asteroid Bennu

by Keith CowingJanuary 30, 2025September 18, 2025